Down a Dark Road

April 24, 2017
Joseph King, whose plight is the focus of bestseller Castillo’s thrilling ninth novel featuring Painters Mill, Ohio, police chief Kate Burkholder (after 2016’s Among the Wicked), has escaped from prison, two years after he was convicted of shooting his wife dead. Bulletins go out that he may return to Painters Mill, where his children are living with relatives. Kate knows all the evidence pointed to King as a vicious murderer, but she remembers him as the caring, toothy-grinned boy on whom she once had a crush. When an angry, brooding King shows up in Painters Mill, he swears that he didn’t kill his wife and implores Kate to prove his innocence. In short order, there emerge a surprise witness, startling villains, crucial mistakes on Kate’s part, and enough violence to shatter the town’s rural tranquility. Kate’s true love, John Tomasetti, an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, has her back as always, and Castillo skillfully sets each scene, compelling readers to fear the raging stream, sense the tension in a room, and yes, even smell the manure. Author tour. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

March 1, 2017

Joseph King, a fallen Amish man convicted of murdering his wife, has escaped from prison and kidnapped his five children at gunpoint. But Chief of Police Kate Burkholder, star of the New York Times best-selling series, thinks he might be innocent. With a national tour.

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Starred review from May 15, 2017
A police officer who grew up Amish struggles to separate her past from the present.A call about a prison break arouses memories of Painters Mill Police Chief Kate Burkholder's happy childhood and a keen sense of present danger. Joseph King, who lived next door to Kate when she was growing up, was both her playmate and her first crush. His life and personality changed when his father was killed in an accident and the family moved away. After a checkered career, he married lovely Naomi and they had five children before he was sent to prison for murdering her. While Kate is checking around the house where Naomi's sister, Rebecca, and her husband, Daniel Beachy, live with Joseph's children, she's jumped by someone who turns out to be Joseph, who tells her that he didn't kill his wife--a story that's backed up by his youngest daughter, Sadie, who was only 3 at the time. Unlike her colleagues, Kate's inclined to believe the mature little girl's story of a stranger who entered the house, killed her mother, and nearly killed Sadie too. After Kate promises Joseph she'll look into his case, he sends her out to talk to the police officers who have surrounded them, but her story and advice are callously dismissed, and Joseph is killed by a police sniper. A picture taken as she left the house that night makes it look as if Joseph was kissing her, causing a media storm that sends the devastated Kate into administrative leave. But her own loyal team and her lover, John Tomasetti, an agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, believe in her hunch. As she talks to witnesses and looks through questionable case records, Kate realizes that even her position may not protect her from the consequences of her search. Castillo (Among the Wicked, 2016, etc.) once again weaves the particularities of the Amish mindset into a complex mystery that will leave you crying with pity or seething with rage.

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May 1, 2017
The ninth entry to the Kate Burkholder series finds the police chief on the case of an Amish man who has escaped from prison and taken his five children hostage. Joseph King was convicted of murdering his wife but has maintained his innocence, and now needs the chief, formerly Amish herself and an old friend, to help him. She has a knack for getting the usually close-mouthed members of the Amish community to talk to her, and refuses to give up when she thinks she's onto something. There's a personal connectionKing was her first schoolgirl crushthat also keeps her determined to uncover the truth. As with other books in the series, the story is told from Kate's first-person point of view, which gives an immediacy and intimacy to the actionand makes it easy for those new to the series to jump right in. Castillo works in fine details and insight into Amish life, but this is no gentle readthere is plenty of tension and some good red herrings that will keep any mystery reader satisfied.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2017

Kate Burkholder is back in her ninth adventure (after Among the Wicked) set in Ohio's Amish country. As chief of police of Painters Mill, and ex-Amish herself, Kate has had many encounters with the Amish community. This time the engagement hits close to home when Kate is alerted that former childhood friend Joseph King, convicted of the murder of his wife while their five children slept, has escaped from prison and could be heading her way. Kate warns the aunt and uncle who have custody of the children. On patrol soon after, she investigates a fire at a nearby farm and then checks on the King offspring, only to be taken hostage by their father. A desperate Joe tries to convince Kate of his innocence but is tragically cut down when the hostage standoff turns deadly. Kate, beset by guilt and nagged by Joe's certainty that someone else killed his wife, investigates and uncovers more than she had imagined. VERDICT Kate is a likable cop and the Amish setting is infinitely fascinating. Series fans will appreciate this solid outing. [See Prepub Alert, 1/30/17]--Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.